


Avoided

by fractalgeometry



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Communication, Curiosity, Police Discussion, characters being willing to hear hard truths, characters being willing to learn, learning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22951780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractalgeometry/pseuds/fractalgeometry
Summary: “I just had another person look straight at me, change directions, and walk the other way! Sometimes they’re even crossing the street. Do I look like a serial killer or something?” Jake ran a hand dramatically through his hair. “Like, obviously I’m dashingly handsome, but…”“Sometimes women err on the side of avoiding men if they’re even a little bit not sure of him,” Amy said quietly. “It’s easier that way.”Jake deflated. “I know. I hate that that’s true, but I know it is. It’s not just women, though. Men, children - everybody!”~Jake notices people avoiding him on the street when he's dressed in his police uniform, and wants to know why. A witness to a crime he's investigating is willing to explain some of her perspective.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Avoided

**Author's Note:**

> One of my problems with loving B99 so much is all the problems that IRL police have. I wanted to have the characters deal with that, partly for them and partly for myself. This is my way of doing that. I'm very curious to hear what people think!

“Am I intimidating?” Jake demanded of the bullpen in general, re-entering after his break. 

“No,” Rosa said without looking at him.

“Why do you ask?” Amy said as he sat down across from her. 

“I just had another person look straight at me, change directions, and walk the other way! Sometimes they’re even crossing the street. Do I look like a serial killer or something?” He ran a hand dramatically through his hair. “Like, obviously I’m dashingly handsome, but…”

“Sometimes women err on the side of avoiding men if they’re even a little bit not sure of him,” Amy said quietly. “It’s easier that way.”

Jake deflated. “I know. I hate that that’s true, but I know it is. It’s not just women, though. Men, children - everybody!”

“It can’t be _everybody_ ,” Rosa said, finally looking up. “I _wish_ everybody would avoid me, but no such luck. Let me know if you get it figured out.”

“It’s called - Amy, what’s that word for saying something in a bigger way than it actually is?”

“Exaggeration?”

“Not what I was thinking, but close enough. It’s called-”

“Hyperbole?”

“That’s the one! It’s called hyperbole, Rosa. Of course not everyone is avoiding me. But it’s happened too often to be random!”

“Enjoy figuring out what it is, then,” Rosa said, and turned her attention away from him again.

“Is it really all the time?” Amy asked. “Or could there be a common factor? Like is it only when you’re wearing your NYPD gear or something?”

“I don’t know,” Jake admitted, frowning. “I can try to notice.”

“Up to you,” Amy said. “It doesn’t affect me either way.”

~

It did affect Jake, though, so he started to pay attention. And the more he watched, the more he saw a pattern. While people definitely avoided him on the street on a nearly daily basis, it was only when he was in some form of his police uniform. Pretty much any piece of the uniform was enough to make people go the other way, apparently, though the worst version was clearly when he was with a police car. He’d seen people walk around the corner, notice him and the car, and practically make an about-face to go back the way they came. There was no way it was coincidence. 

Amy looked thoughtful when he told her his conclusion. “A lot of people don’t trust cops. That’s probably it.”

“I know,” Jake said. “It’s just weird to see that so obviously when it comes to me. I never really thought of people looking at me and just seeing a police officer.”

“Everybody thinks they’re unique,” Amy said philosophically. “It’s probably a good thing for us to remember when we’re assuming things about other people.”

“Some cops are jerks.”

“A lot of cops are jerks,” she corrected. “Honestly, it’s pretty justified for people to avoid us if they don’t know us.”

“It is! It’s justified, and that sucks,” Jake sighed.

“There isn’t a lot we can do about it, though. Just be our best selves and the best cops we can be, and try to call out any officers we see doing things they shouldn’t.”

“How do you always word things so nicely?” Jake asked, shaking his head with a smile.

~

Jake tried to drop it after that. He really did. Amy was right; there wasn’t anything he could do besides being a good person himself. The only problem was that once he started noticing people’s reactions to him walking down the street in police gear he couldn’t seem to stop. And those reactions stung, even when he could vaguely guess why they were happening. He felt insulted, or stupid, or oblivious by turns, and he wished he understood the problem better. He theoretically understood police brutality and corruption and all that, but he hadn’t actually ever had problems with the police, except in an office politics kind of way. 

So he read some articles, or at least he read enough of a few articles to decide that it was not his favorite way to get information and instead tried to find videos explaining the problem. It helped a bit with the knowledge issue, but it all still felt theoretical. And it still hurt when someone changed directions to avoid him on the street.

Which is how he ended up in front of a witness to a robbery at a little corner store, handing her his contact information. 

Well, no. A lot of things happened in between those two sentences, including several questionable decisions on Jake’s part. The first - though he was pretty sure it was a little too automatic to be reasonably classified as a decision - was noticing how she seemed to be wishing he would ignore her instead of asking questions about what she saw. The second was tying that to his uniform. The third…

“Why are you scared of me?”

The young woman looked pretty freaked out by that question, which, Jake thought, was completely fair. Way to be professional, Peralta. That was _definitely_ not an appropriate question to have asked right there. 

“Never mind. I mean. Yeah. That wasn’t an official question or anything, obviously.”

“Why do you ask?” she said, and then, “I don’t have to answer?”

“No! No. It’s not related to the case. Just- I’ve noticed people avoiding me on the street when I’m in uniform, and I know that there are good reasons, but, like, I’ve always wanted to be a cop, and I’ve never been scared of them or anything, so I don’t completely understand why this is happening and I wish I did.” God, why was he talking so much?

“Peralta!” Rosa called. “Come look at this when you’re done!”

“Coming!” he shouted, then lowered his voice again. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I shouldn’t have brought it up. Thank you for your help with the case.”

The woman was looking at him almost contemplatively, but she still looked more wary than anything. She didn’t speak, so after a moment he kept going.

“I think my partner has something to show me, so I’ll head over there and you can go home. Unless there’s something I can do for you?” There, that was pulling back some of the professionalism.

“Give me your email address,” she said after another pause. “I’ll think about it.”

“You don’t have to-“

“I said I’ll think about it.”

He scribbled his work email semi-illegibly on a scrap of paper that he unearthed from his pocket — how he ended up in possession of a scrap of paper he’d never know — and handed it over. 

“Thank you again for your help, ma’am,” he said. Look, more professionalism! At this rate he was going to end up on a roll.

Her lips twitched like she had been about to say something but changed her mind, so he waited a second so as not to miss anything she did want to say. When she stayed silent, he waved a bit awkwardly and trotted over to see what Rosa was up to.

~

Jake didn’t tell anyone about his conversation with the witness at the break-in. Well no, he obviously told plenty of people about the part related to the case. Just not the embarrassing parts where he asked situationally inappropriate questions, rambled, and then gave his email to a random stranger. Who never sent him anything. Which, to be fair, was entirely reasonable. She was clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation and had probably just been trying to placate him so she could leave. 

Great, now he felt guilty again. It had been coming in waves throughout the weeks since that case. He had tried to stop noticing when people avoided him on the street, because it only made him feel bad and it wasn’t his business why they did it anyway. He did his job as well as he could, and people could think of it what they did. 

That was the extent of what Jake considered himself to have learned from the whole escapade until one day about five weeks after the break-in, when Charles called, “Jake! You have a visitor!”

“I what?” Jake responded, swiveling to look at his friend quizzically. The members of the nine-nine didn’t generally get ‘visitors’, and if any of them did, it wasn’t Jake. 

Charles didn’t answer, because Jake’s ‘visitor’ was already on her way over. She looked familiar, but Jake couldn’t quite place her until she spoke.

“I said I’d think about it.”

He practically jumped out of his chair. “Oh! Yeah, you did. Um, how did you find me? I mean, welcome. Have a seat.”

She sat, looking slightly wary but mostly determined. “It’s not that hard to find information on someone, Detective Peralta.”

“Right, right, right. I know that. Yup. Why are you here?”

She tilted her head to one side. “You seemed to have questions. I decided I was willing to try answering them.”

He felt himself smiling. “Awesome! Uh, do you want to sit out here, or we could go into the other room…”

“I’d prefer to stay here, if that’s all right.”

Jake would _really_ rather go into the briefing room, or somewhere else with fewer prying ears that were probably itching to tease him, but he decided that it was very much not up to him in this case. “Sure.”

“First, I want to know again why you asked me what you did.”

This woman really didn’t mess around. Jake, though he was entirely unable to relate himself, found it pleasantly familiar given the company he kept on a regular basis. The only problem was what to say.

“Well,” he started slowly, “I’ve started to notice people seeming to avoid me when I walk down the street, but only when I’m in some part of my police uniform, so I decided it must be related to that. I’ve heard of people not trusting the police and stuff, and I can imagine why, but it feels super theoretical to me, ‘cause I’ve never had that problem. So I guess I just wanted to know why, from somebody who actually does get it. Because I don’t. Even though I want to.”

The woman looked thoughtful. “You actually want to know. Just to know?”

He nodded. 

“That’s cool!” She sounded almost admiring. “I can give you my perspective. But you can’t argue with me. None of this is up for discussion. I’m telling you things, and you’re listening to them. Just to be clear here."

“Okay.”

She pressed her lips together for a second, then said, “You were right. I _don’t_ trust the police. You never know what they’re going to do, and in my experience their first goal isn’t my safety. So it’s better to just not be around them.”

That hurt, but Jake kept himself from interrupting. She had made her stance on his input perfectly clear, and contrary to popular belief, Jake _could_ shut up and listen when it was important.

She was watching him, and Jake figured his reaction had probably shown on his face. He wasn’t well-known for his poker face either. Oh well.

“None of this is exactly about you, obviously,” she continued. “If I didn’t think you were okay, I wouldn’t be here. Anyway...let’s see. My parents taught me to go the other way when I see police for two main reasons. That one, and the fact that if there are police doing something, there’s probably something going down I don’t want to be caught up in. Even if the police themselves are okay, if they’re arresting somebody I don’t want to be anywhere near that.”

That...made a lot of sense, actually. Jake almost felt his worldview expanding in real time.

“The other thing is that avoiding officers can pretty much never end badly. Unless they’re looking for me specifically, obviously. But really, either they’re not trustworthy, in which case it’s a good thing to not encounter them, or they are, and it doesn’t hurt either way.” She smiled at him wryly. “It’s a safety thing, really. If I’m cautious, I’ll probably avoid more situations than I need to, but I’ll also avoid the ones that really would be a problem. If I switch my thinking around, I’m more likely to end up in a bad encounter.” She shrugged a little. “Does that make sense?”

Jake nodded slowly. It _did_ make sense. The only problem was he felt like an idiot for not being able to figure it out on his own. “Yes. It does. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiled a little again. “Thank you for listening. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to.”

“Now _that’s_ a little insulting,” he said before he thought better of it. “I can listen when it’s important!”

“Of course you can. But when it’s somebody explaining why they dislike your entire profession, I can imagine it might be a little harder.”

Jake considered making another joke, but something about this woman made him want to give her whatever honest answers he could, so he said, “Yeah, it was. But, like, I asked for it. And I wanted to hear what you said. Like I said, it’s important.”

“I really appreciate that you think that,” she said. “That’s the only reason I came here. It’s the only reason I even asked for your email. You seemed to actually want to know, and I think it’s an important thing for police officers to hear. You can tell your coworkers if you want. Just don’t tell them who I am. I’m not comfortable with that.”

“ _I_ don’t even know who you are!” Jake said, laughing a little.

She smirked almost playfully. “You think that’s a mistake?”

It was phrased and passed off as a joke, but Jake noticed she didn’t tell him anything more. It really _wasn’t_ a mistake, which was a sobering realization just by itself.

“I’m going to head out,” she said. “Thank you for listening. Use your powers for good.”

“I’ll try.” He stood up. “Thanks for talking to me.”

“You’re welcome.”

With that, she walked away.

~

Jake did end up talking to some of the others about his conversation with the nameless mystery woman. He couldn’t really avoid it — everyone who had been in the office when she came was dying to know what was up, and anyway, she was right. It _was_ important insight for them to have. Not all of them had been as oblivious as him, which wasn’t a surprise, but each one was worth talking to in their own right. 

He didn’t get any better at ignoring people who avoided him. It was like a lens had dropped over the world that one day he started looking and he couldn’t take it off. But with his new information, he learned to lessen the sting. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t a pointed insult to his choice of career. It was just people, going about their lives, trying to do what was best for them based on their information in any given situation. 

And if choosing not to pass him on the street was best for them, Jake wasn’t going to argue. His actions were guided by his personal understanding of the world just like theirs, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I would _really_ love any thoughts you have on this one. It's a complicated topic, and I really only focused on the perspectives I'm most familiar with, because I know I can do those parts justice. So let me know what you think - in general and about this fic in particular. :)


End file.
